001that's close enough for rock and roll right we live good evening everybody I'd like to call the November 3rd 2022 regular board meeting of the school district of Haverford Township to order if we could all rise for the pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all I just want to take a minute at the start of the meeting to say that uh I'm almost 70 years old and I don't ever remember having an opportunity to say that the Philadelphia Eagles are 7-0 and the Phillies are playing in the World Series those two things are competing with the board meeting this evening and I also just want to give a shout out to the Philadelphia
002Union because they're in the finals on Saturday so it's a great time to be a Philly sports fan Martha could you call the roll please Dr Crispin here Dr King here Dr Larson here Dr McKay here Mr Schwartz here Ms Snodgrass here is Vitality here Mr Feinberg here Ms wiedemann Miss wiedemann is traveling so uh I'm chairing the meeting this evening I'll accept a motion to approve the official minutes from the October 20th 2022 regular public board meeting Chrisman move it's not gross second moved in second any discussion all in favor any opposed motion carries thank you I want to introduce our two new student reps this evening from the Middle School we have Sarah Brown and from the high school Aaron Coyle so welcome both we look forward to hearing your reports throughout the
003rest of the school year and so Sarah would you like to start out um this week marks the con clusion this week all of our teams are competing and enjoying outstanding seasons there are some unbeatened teams and they are really grateful and for the opportunity to compete this season there will be a meeting regarding winter sports on November 16th at 2 45 PM in the auditorium the student-led conferences are coming up we have been getting ready for them in the coming weeks we will devote our time to prepare for our family conferences there will be holding they'll be holding those 21st 22nd and 23rd of November are slated to be to be dedicated for student-led conferences the first marking period is hard nearly over if you can even believe it on Friday November 11th the
004first marking period concludes on Friday November 11th we will honor veterans on Veterans Day first would we would like to acknowledge and thank members of our community who have served in the armed forces second we are participating in the wound War Warrior projects burpees for a veterans challenge some employees and students committed to forming 830 burpees which are about 28 per day throughout the month of November additionally we would make a contribution to the Wounded Warrior Project during the week beginning of no November 14th we will be celebrating American Education week and we cannot wait on November on Friday November 18th we will be bringing our families to school so that we can observe one of our classes foreign thank you did you say 830 that's a lot Aaron um good evening and thank you
005for presenting me with this platform to speak since it's my first meeting I'm going to give a little introduction about myself so my name is Aaron Coyle and I'm a junior part of the class of 2024 at Haverford I'm a member of many clubs at the school I like to be very involved so I'm a part of National Honor Society Science Academy Haverford against hunger and student Senate I also play varsity field hockey for the school and I also play field hockey outside of the school for Club I also do a large variety of other sports such as like Gaelic football komogi and I Irish dance for the McDade Cara School I'm very involved in sports so I always enjoy watching Hartford sports team succeed girls soccer girls volleyball and girls field hockey all advance
006to the first round of district one playoffs girls soccer lost in the 105th minute of double overtime where they fought a very tough battle it was a very exciting game to watch girls volleyball played Perkiomen Valley and lost all three sets they were right behind in the battle though as they only lost by two points in each set keeping the game very exciting and close girls field hockey also lost in a tough matchup against Boyertown the team performs put forth their best effort and played hard until the very last minute these team successful seasons have come to an end but the student athletes are continuing to work throughout their off season on their Fitness and skills the cross-country team has had a very successful season this year and will be attending the state championships at
007Hershey tomorrow November 4th for the second year in a row both the girls and boys cross country teams have qualified for the state championships Hereford only is the only School in District 1 to have both teams qualify which is amazing Hartford has four athletes ranked in the top ten in the state so far and 10 athletes did perform at the district championships the sports that are preparing for their upcoming seasons are utilizing the amazing space and staff that the school offers with the new fitness room I'm very excited to join these workouts because I can stay connected with my team while also staying active when I cannot play field hockey outside with the great leadership of the coaches and collaboration of the students harford's Athletics are now becoming stronger than ever the fall play hunk
008performed between the dates of October 27th to the 29th the play had one performance on the 27th one on the 28th and two on the 29th the casting crew put forth their best effort and time to ensure that the play had an amazing performance the production was so cute and loved by all ages and it was amazing to see the performance all put together the school held a wellness day on October 28th where students were able to to decide how they would like to spend the day students had numerous choices when it came down to deciding what activity they wanted to participate in I chose Ultimate Frisbee and it was so fun with all my friends getting outside the weather was so nice so I really enjoyed it my older sister on the other hand
009chose pumpkin painting so she's very creative and she painted her pumpkin as the um the poison apple from Snow White much more creative than I could ever be so I applaud her um student Senate's yearly blood drive was hosted in the gym on October 27th this event was a huge success among students and staff who were so willing to participate we had 100 students sign up to donate blood and so many more sign up to run the event the senior class of 2023 hosted a Halloween Carnival night for all the children in the community ages 5 to 10. this event was run by both students of the senior class and other members of the school who were very willing to donate their time and this was a great way to connect with the younger students
010in the community the first academic quarter is coming to the end coming to an end as of tomorrow it's weird to think that we're already a quarter of the Year done even though my classes don't change I'm very excited for a fresh start one highlight of my classes is I'm currently taking AP Chemistry where we have been testing the concentration of vitamin C and orange juice through a titration lab it's been very exciting I love science so it's always very exciting for me I'm excited for upcoming events such as the homecoming dance and discover day these events will happen on November 5th and November 18th discover day is where Elementary School students can go room to room and be inspired by countless stem activities I will be hoping to run a room with the club
011teens of future medicine where I'll be holding a simple demonstration for how blood pumps through the body while also providing kids with the opportunity to make their own DIY lungs I cannot wait for all the exciting activities to come in the second quarter and thank you for allowing me to present some highlights of HHS and go forwards great thank you very much next time on our agenda is to superintendent's comments Jen thank you thank you Mr Feinberg um so I am very pleased to congratulate a senior Nicholas Borghese for qualifying for the nafme all National Honor Choir uh Nicholas scored high enough at all states uh last semester in the spring to qualify for this incredible choir so he will be performing with other members of this all national Choir in Baltimore uh next week
012and I'd like to just congratulate his music teachers that he has had throughout the year of course his family and all of his supporters and and just make a special mention of Miss Kelsey Handler who has been working with him last year and this year and has accompanied him to the performances and we're just so excited for him and it's quite an honor to to make the national level so congratulations to Nicholas um as we heard Aaron mentioned discover day a community favorite is back it will be hosted by our high school science academy our science department and really run by students and it's coming up this Saturday uh it is from 10 a.m to 1 p.m it's free of charge right it's uh been advertised to our elementary families through our principal Publications but
013please anyone in the community is welcome to come out uh it's a very exciting day there are dozens of offerings all STEM related all Hands-On so much fun kids leave with takeaways and it's just such a wonderful experience to see our older students teaching our younger students and sharing their passion for Science and we're all very much looking forward to that we hope to see everybody there and now it is my pleasure to introduce Miss Christina Carter she is our director of learning and assessment and she is actually here to make another introduction of two students from Haverford High School who participated in a Summit called the big thing a summit to change young lives so I'll turn it over to you Ms Carter too tell us a little bit more hi good evening to
014members of the board so I have the honor of introducing two amazing seniors at our high school who as you just heard had the opportunity to attend the big thing Summit it was at the convention center downtown with people um from all across the county in the area students teachers other Educators administrators policy makers and they were able to go and learn about how to advocate for education and things that they're passionate about along the way so the two ladies they got that first I have Mrs Gene well Miss Jean Park she has been in our district from kindergarten through 12th grade so she's been with us a long time she attended Linwood in through the middle school and high school she's currently applying to many colleges of course in her senior year and she's
015looking to go into Communications which makes a lot of sense with advocacy also who will be first up to speak will be hope I say it right Milena Molina um Duque bear she has attended the District home first through 12th grade she went to chestnutwald and then to our middle and high school she too is applying to colleges although she is undecided right now she really has an idea of what she wants to do looking at marketing but she made it very clear she only wants to work for a good organizations so non-profits and other organizations that do good things for the world so I'll let these ladies really speak to you about what the event was all about and some takeaways that they have from it foreign hi I'm Elena as she introduced thank
016you so much for having us here to talk about this opportunity it was really grateful to be able to go and learn and then to bring it to all of you I'm such a great opportunity so thank you for that um we attended this event called the big thing a summit to change young lives it was a two-day conference at the end of September in Philadelphia um and there were different sessions and like meetings within the conference that talked about Career Technical education mental health and diversity equity and inclusion within primarily high schools with the ultimate goal of making the optimal School environment where students can Thrive and a lot of the people who attended the conference were actually teachers and school administrators and then there were also some other students from the surrounding areas
017this was actually really intimidating for me I was super nervous that there were so many adults because I was worried that I wouldn't be able to connect with them and that the information presented at the conference would be kind of irrelevant to me but I was totally wrong um so at the end I really enjoyed being able to like hear the teacher perspective because it was really reassuring to know that there are adults like in my surrounding area who are working towards the same goals within the schools just having that sort of support from someone who does have more um like ability to do things within the system was really reassuring and inspiring to me um and it also was nice to know that like there are good things happening behind the scenes that I
018don't always see when I'm like sitting in the classroom learning about Anatomy or English I'm not knowing about all the other things that my teachers are doing behind the scenes and it did really help to sort of break barriers and connect with teachers because like sometimes when you're in school you're thinking like so much about the content that you sort of forget that your teacher's a person to and they're working on their own things so sort of being able to like find things that we could work on together was really interesting and sort of finding ways that we could work together to reach those goals mentioned um it was really inspiring um and because the conference was geared toward teachers I learned so many things that were sort of teacher oriented that as a student
019like if it had only been for students I probably wouldn't have learned for example um one guy was talking about sort of healing in schools and how students and teachers can connect to sort of support students especially in some of the schools that we were talking about like experience a lot more violence than we do at Haverford so it wasn't necessarily totally connecting to us but it was just interesting to hear how like helping like students and teachers can connect in such a way that like can really help students thrive in their environment Beyond just academics and something we talked about is that part of doing that would mean having a more diverse faculty so that students can see themselves represented and have someone that they can connect with um and in the end I
020think that seeing all these teachers and students connecting really made me hope that more students especially younger students who can take this on throughout their whole High School experience and also more faculty who are going to be here for a long time attend these sorts of events because I do think it'd be really beneficial and it was such a great experience so thank you so much good evening my name is Jean Park we're current senior at the high school thank you for inviting me to tonight to discuss what I've learned at the big thing Summit this conference took place over two days in Philadelphia and Melena and I were surrounded by adults whose goal was to increase teacher and staff diversity in schools specifically in Pennsylvania we listen to professional experts on this topic went
021to breakout room discussions to further discuss specific points and engage with participants to learn about each person's experience of course there was a delicious dessert to refresh after heavy discussions I learned why it was important to increase diversity first it provides a role models for students of color and as Molina pointed out earlier it promotes better mental health and emotional support for students seeing someone like you be able to become a teacher or administrator encourage students to do better in school but I would like to emphasize that having a diverse school is important for everyone we live in an ever-changing Society so it is imperative to increase diversity to expose students to different cultures and increase their understanding of others our school should educate students to reflect our society the goal of education is not
022only to enhance academic performance but for students to to prepare students for the globalized international World growing up I've had only two teachers of color since I've been a part of the school district since kindergarten I've never had a teacher of Asian descent or someone who looked like me because of my personal experience this topic has been something that I've been very passionate about however I'm not I'm sure that this situation applies to many minority students as co-president of no place for hate my goal has been to promote inclusive inclusivity throughout the high school with the rise of Asian hate crimes during covet I organized the stop Asian hate walk in May of 2021 and once again in 2022. student speakers spoke at this walk and at the end students ornamented a big poster with
023what Haverford could do to help the Asian American Community one repeating idea was an Asian American Pacific Islander aapi studies class which is exactly what I'm doing today I'm currently working with the principal to create an aapi studies class the first in our district I hope that this class will highlight the contribution of Asian Americans to the United States through their hard work and resistance against stereotypes and discrimination furthermore we will learn about the diversity within the Asian American Community which people often treat as just one group however Asian Americans are so diverse in terms of History country of origin language culture and socioeconomic condition again I would like to emphasize that this class will not only be for Asian American students but for all students by having this class our school can better prepare
024every student for our diverse and inclusive Society thank you foreign [Applause] just add to uh what we've heard here from our students The Proposal of that course has not only had an influence by our own students has not only had an influence on us but we have reached out to other schools in the area and are currently connecting with other schools in districts across the county to work together to look at what a course like an Asian aapi course could look like how is it studied at the college level what kinds of things can we look for so you may have sparked something that's sort of county-wide not only here so it will take us a little while to get that course together but we do appreciate the student voice and all that you've done
025so thank you both uh for your contributions this evening and for your longer lasting contributions as well thank you both for attending the meeting and for bringing it back to us thanks very much next item on our agenda is public comment for items on the agenda no one has signed up to speak of regarding items on the agenda this evening next agenda item is committee reports and we have curriculum and pupil Services Laura Crispin great thanks so our curriculum committee met last Thursday the bulk of our meeting was about the recent enrollment report as of October 1st currently the total enrollment in our district is 6642 students as of October 1 at the elementary level there are two Excuse Me 2 900 and 93 students there were some comparisons we had the recent demography study
026done the demographer projected 3218 so there is a pretty significant difference between the actual enrollment and the projected enrollment and the differences are largely at the kindergarten and the first grade level um Haverford online enrollments at the elementary level are back to pre-pandemic levels Charter School enrollments are slightly lower than pre-pandemic levels at the middle school the actual enrollment is 1627 which is very close to the projected enrollment and it's up slightly from last year at the high school the actual enrollment is 2007 students which is very close to the projected enrollment and also up slightly from last year much more detail was given in the presentation so if anybody's interested in those specifics I definitely encourage you to watch the recording on YouTube on the district's Channel there was also a discussion about the
027preparing contemporary citizens curriculum review process and overview was given um in the review cycle where we typically would be now has been paused um so that the curriculum review can incorporate ways to infuse the goal of preparing contemporary citizens into all subjects and grade levels the goal is to modernize and expand assessment opportunities to prepare citizens for a contemporary World while maintaining current assessment practices there's an action plan that includes internal and external audit focus groups Gap analysis and plan development with periodic updates updates to the board and the public some ideas for exploration include project-based learning authentic task performance and design thinking projects there were also two information items presented one is for vote tonight the cciu support of special education and curriculum review that is in support of the district's audit of the
028life skills program and the gifted program and then based on Dr ruchi's comments at our last public board meeting there is there has been since then a minimal response to the need for a Latin teacher um and Dr rushi mentioned in our last public business meeting that you know they the district has been reaching out to find a Latin teacher many districts in the area have dropped Latin at the state level very few certifications have been given for Latin teachers throughout Pennsylvania so there's just really not a lot of teachers teaching Latin it is very likely the case that a Latin one excuse me that Latin one will not be offered going forward if they're not able to find a teacher and the district will plan for how to teach out the Latin curriculum to
029the students who are currently enrolled in Latin so again all the details can be found in the recording of our meeting from last week so thank you thank you Dr Chrisman next item is buildless I'll accept the motion to approve disbursements from the general fund totaling two hundred eighteen thousand two hundred ninety nine dollars and 45 cents crisp and move first and second moved in second any discussion all in favor aye aye any opposed motion carries I'll accept a motion to approve a contract agreement with Robert Half Talent Solutions it's not grass moved Crispin second moved in second any discussion all in favor any opposed motion carries I'll accept a motion to accept the following resignations as listed moved in second any discussion all in favor aye any opposed motion carries I'll accept the motion
030to approve the following appointments as listed contingent upon receipt of all necessary clearances including act 168 of 2014. crisp and move okay second moved in second any discussion all in favor any opposed motion carries I'll accept a motion to approve the following non-acceptance of appointment progress moved the tally second moved in second any discussion all in favor aye aye any opposed motion carries I'll accept a motion to approve the following leave request crisp and move on a second moved in second any discussion all in favor any opposed motion cards I'll accept the motion to approve the following educational service contracts for services provided to the district King moved and second any discussion all in favor any opposed motion carries next item on our agenda is policy one of the people's Services agreement it's a a
031right a sorry I'm sorry thank you I'll accept the motion to approve the following educational service agreement for a District student the agreement covers reimbursement for Educational Services for school years as listed okay moved progress second moved in second any discussion all in favor hi any opposed motion carries thanks for helping out there next item on the agenda is policy Antoinette um sure I um moved to table policy zero zero six point one until our next meeting second um our our solicitor is not here today um he was suddenly uh absent and so we could not have a representative from our solicitor here since they are usually part of the discussion the ongoing discussion of policy both at the committee level and at the board level we thought that it would be better and we
032could have a more robust efficient discussion of these policies at our next meeting so I moved to table this one that's what's up for now and then I'm gonna move to table the other ones too okay so we have a move in second on a um uh all in favor aye any opposed policy uh 6.1 is tabled internet I moved to table um policy 200 enrollment of students and 200 AR Vitaly second all in favor aye aye aye any any opposed policy 200 is tabled internet um I moved to table policy 201 admission of students and 201 AR like okay a second moved in second all in favor aye any opposed policy 201 is also tabled and we'll be bringing these back next item on the agenda is public comment for other items that were
033not on the agenda one speaker has signed up Stacy Kaiser tomaschik Stacy hi my name is Stacey tamashik I'm a resident of the district thank you guys for allowing me to make this comment I'm here tonight to express support for making the school district's calendar More inclusive by observing popular holidays such as Eid Diwali Chinese New Year as soon as I saw this petition in my email it made sense to me um our community is growing and so is its diversity over the summer I had two families move on either side of me and both our young families and both have parents born outside of this country and one of them shared their amazing homemade meal from their Eid celebration it was delicious and I'm embarrassed to admit that I didn't even know Eid was
034a holiday until last year and I'm consider myself pretty globally aware but obviously there's a big gap there um I don't know a lot of things there's also at Costco recently there were enormous displays of fireworks in October and I was confused like what is going on I didn't realize that um people who celebrate Diwali uh do so with dazzling lights such as fireworks like I didn't know that and I have very close friends in the injury community and I still didn't know that but the world this is the world and I love what I'm learning and I love the community that is around me and I look forward to learning more and I know so many of our community members of all backgrounds and beliefs also are thrilled to embrace our community's diversity and
035celebrate with them and I think making these changes to the calendar Falls in line with the district's commitment to our children's sense of belonging and embracing all of their socio-cultural identities I mean everywhere you look is talking about diversity inclusion making you know embracing our diversity and celebrating it and I thank you all of you for your commitment to that because it's evident in you know the things that you support and the decisions you make so um you know I just asked the school district to look at the community talk to the community and you know consider making these changes thanks thank you board reports Dave first pitch is about five minutes fall pass no pressure Dr King I mean I feel obligated [Laughter] I guess I'm passing as well I brought out a copy
036of Crepes um I just I wanted to just reiterate discovered a is Saturday it's awesome the students put so much work into it the teachers put so much work into it and it's super super fun I will be there um I hope other people come out and with that I will say on to the next board report no report okay I will spare you all the details but um dciu held its um November meeting yesterday evening I will share that um the board approved the comprehensive plan I will not read you all the details of the four strategic areas but in brief they are a goal of Standards align curriculum for K-12 math and language arts support and services for students complex behavioral and mental health needs hiring and retention strategies to hire and retain
037highly qualified staff at the IU and also the establishment of a new administrator Academy to develop strong leaders and I will give more details on my next report next time we meet I have two screens set up for me at home so no report for Golden Village um yeah just really briefly I know Aaron covered it really well but um I was able to go see honk um the musical with my two daughters and we just had a blast it was really fun um so I just say congratulations and a really great job to everyone who is involved you know everyone on stage off stage it was it was a wonderful production and then just really quickly election day is on Tuesday so please go out and vote um president wiedemann is not here but
038she always says that um just because the school board's not on the ballot doesn't mean that education's not um so you know go out and vote on Tuesday and look at the policies for Education it's obviously important to us to have elected officials who support our schools and support Public Schools so I encourage everybody to go out and vote thanks thanks to Antoinette on Monday and Tuesday I attended the Pennsylvania Association of school administrators and Pennsylvania School boards associations School leadership conference it's the first time that it's been held in person since before covid it was great to see so many folks from all over the state that I haven't seen years a great slate of workshops and educational sessions was time well spent I'd just like to follow up on Antoinette's comment and get
039out and vote get your neighbors to vote get your kids to vote it's a good election and with that the next regular public board meeting is scheduled to be held on November 17th at 7 30 p.m in the boardroom of the Oakmont administration building and with that I'll accept a motion to adjourn vital [Music] record